China’s Xinhua says US OPM hack was not state-sponsored

The FBI and Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to requests for comment, and an OPM spokesman said he could not comment on the matter.

“Through investigation, the case turned out to be a criminal case, rather than a state-sponsored cyberattack as the US side has previously suspected”, Xinhua reported.

The revelation came in a state media report about a meeting this week between the USA and China looking at how the countries could improve cooperation to combat cyber threats.

If China has arrested the true perpetrators of the hack, which exposed the personal data of 21.5 million federal employees and others, it would constitute the first instance of formal accountability for the breach.

Or did a state contractor get out in front of the Chinese government?

Chinese hacking of both private companies and government agencies has been a constant irritant between the USA and China.

“We can’t attribute it directly to a specific intelligence organization or office building in Beijing, (but) the writing is on the wall in terms of the evidence we do have”, said Hultquist, whose firm provides cyber intelligence to the USA government.

“I think that China has realized that this is an issue that really matters to the United States, and that if they’re going to continue to manage the relationship with us in a positive way, they had to figure out some way to address our concerns”, an anonymous USA official told the Post.

So, was the OPM hack a case of traditional state-sanctioned, if not state-executed, espionage?

The report did not give details of who conducted the investigation, or whether USA and Chinese officials both agreed with the conclusion. “This is a problem that is not going to go away”.

OPM has been under scrutiny from lawmakers and the public ever since it disclosed earlier this year that it had fallen victim to two cyber attacks, which officials have privately linked to Chinese hackers.

The session was the first since President Obama and President Xi Jinping of China announced a set of vague rules of the road about what kind of hacking is impermissible.